VFLW 2023 Season - Preliminary Final - Bombers lose to the Borough by 5 goals. Season over.

[CrowdedHouse]

The 2023 rebel VFLW season commences on Saturday, March 25, with six matches scheduled across a bumper opening weekend.

The VFLW side will take on the Box Hill Hawks at 11am, also at the NEC Hangar where the Bombers are set to unfurl their 2022 Premiership flag.

All matches in the 2023 Smithy’s VFL and rebel VFLW seasons will be live streamed free via the AFL website (afl.com.au) and AFL Live Official App. Further broadcast details will be confirmed at a later time.

Entry to rebel VFLW matches is free. Where venues host VFL and VFLW double-headers, entry fees will apply after half time of the VFLW match.

Fixtures for all remaining rounds will be released shortly.

2023 VFL and VFLW round one fixture release

Men's and women's reserves opening round fixtures set.

www.essendonfc.com.au

Round	Opponent	Venue	Date & Time
1	Essendon vs Box Hill Hawks	The Hangar	Sunday March 26 @ 11am
2	Southern Saints vs Essendon	Trevor Barker Beach Oval	Sunday April 2 @ 3pm
3	Essendon vs Carlton	The Hangar	Saturday April 8 @ 1pm
4	Essendon vs Casey Demons	The Hangar	Sunday April 16 @ 11am
5	Collingwood vs Essendon	Victoria Park	Saturday April 22 @ 11am
6	Williamstown vs Essendon	Williamstown Football Ground	Sunday April 30 @ 2pm
7	Essendon vs Southern Saints	The Hangar	Saturday May 7 @ 11am
8	Box Hill Hawks vs Essendon	Box Hill City Oval	Saturday May 13 @ 12pm
9	Essendon vs Geelong	The Hangar	Saturday May 20 @ 11am
10	Darebin vs Essendon	La Trobe University	Sunday May 28 @ 10.30am
11	Essendon vs North Melbourne	The Hangar	Sunday June 4 @ 11am
12	Casey Demons vs Essendon	Casey Fields	Saturday June 17 @12pm
13	Port Melbourne vs Essendon	ETU Stadium	Sunday June 25 @ 11.30am
14	Essendon vs Western Bulldogs	TBC	TBC

 

[Lore]

Amber Clarke is out there in 33, Mia Busch in 28, Alana Barba in 11, and Renee Tierney in 23. Morcs apparently injured so she's out after playing last week.

Not quite sure why we're seeing a maximum of 4 AFL players per team this week and last week. Some will be playing other sports or have other commitments which is fair, but you'd think there'd be more than 4 available and that if available they'd be picked.

 

[Lore]

HT
Southern Saints 2.4 16
Essendon 2.1 13

 

[Lore]

Had a nice opportunity with Barbs in the pocket through some congestion, but didn't convert.

Seems Caitlin Sargent is our only avenue to goal

 

[Lore]

Ugle wins a 50m free and gets a shot from the top of the square, misses. :\

 

[Lore]

3QT
Southern Saints 3.4 22
Essendon 2.5 17

 

[Lore]

FT
Southern Saints 6.6 42
Essendon 2.5 17

 

[ant555]

They are not as good as last year. Too many changes across the whole system. I stayed until 3/4 time . The had a decent crack but the Saint’s had them for overall skill level and also pace .

 

[Bombermania]

Missing Frew, Anthony, Hoskins, Nadler, Georgie N, Zancetta and a few others.

 

[yodellinhank]

Too many changes across the whole system.

Why the club thought to mess with the 1 area that was clearly working I'll never know

 

[ant555]

Why the club thought to mess with the 1 area that was clearly working I'll never know

Not sure there was a lot of choice in some areas.

 

[Lore]

This was our Grand Final team last July:

The only ones named on the field that aren't at Essendon anymore are Simone Nalder (Saints AFLW), Jordan Zanchetta (Essendon AFLW and then delisted), Eloise Ashley-Cooper (Essendon AFLW and then delisted), Cecilia McIntosh (retired), Elizabeth Hosking (Carlton VFLW), Marianna Anthony (North Melbourne VFLW).

Of those, most we couldn't really do much about.

Of the emergencies, we still have Gloria Elarmaly and Eleanor Cornish, while Lauren Caruso, Nicole Julian, Octavia DiDonato, Drew Ryan all poached to other VFLW teams. Which if you had to be an emergency for a grand final and then didn't get an AFLW contract, you'd probably go somewhere you were best 22, I suppose?

Then looking at who we gained today that weren't in the grand final team: Mia Busch and Amber Clarke are AFLW listed players and Megan Ryan and Caitlin Sargent are our delisted AFLW players, none of whom were in our VFLW team before. Zoe Hurrell is fresh off Sydney's AFLW list, Annabelle Strahan from Bulldogs AFLW.

So in theory we have more AFLW/ex-AFLW players available this year than we did last year.

Better question is why the rest of them aren't playing. Some will be due to injury or cross-coding or whatever. Some might be at the F1 or something. But it still seems like a lot of them are not available...

 

[CrowdedHouse]

Fede Frew made her debut for Port Melbourne on the weekend and kicked two.

 

[Bombermania]

Is J. Davies still at the club?

 

[Lore]

Is J. Davies still at the club?

No idea, can't find any info about her

 

[Lore]

Hey look! AFLW player update following the VFLW game

VFLW player review: Rd 2 v Southern Saints

Four listed AFLW players played in Sunday's matchup against Southern Saints.

www.essendonfc.com.au

Tierney injured, Busch learning a new role, Clarke and Barba getting a run.

 

[Lore]

Marianna Anthony just got drafted to Carlton after five minutes on North's VFLW list. Good for her, I guess!

 

[CrowdedHouse]

Essendon host Carlton at The NEC Hanger this Saturday, 1pm. Free entry.

Live (without commentary) on AFL.com.au

ESSENDON
B	T. Crook (49)	B. Clarke (45)
HB	C. Ugle (41)	S. Molan (73)	M. Busch (28)
C	M. Huta (56)	A. Clarke (33)	K. Heil (78)
HF	P. Scott (32)	O. Manfre (43)	T. Hart-Aluni (59)
F	J. Doonan (12)	C. Sargent (80)
R	M. Ryan (76)	K. Jacques (16)	A. Barba (11)
INT	A. Strahan (79)	E. Cornish (55)	T. Davidge (77)
	G. Dicker (44)	C. Prpic (58)
EMG	L. Spargo (51)	M. Pearson (64)	M. Gray (48)
INS	S. Molan	K. Heil	K. Jacques
P. Scott	J. Doonan	C. Prpic
O. Manfre
OUTS	J. Richardson	M. Gray	Z. Hurrell
L. Spargo	M. Pearson	R. Tierney (injured)
M. Bateman

CARLTON
B	P. Trudgon (14)	K. Lennox (13)
HB	A. Bild (7)	G. Lawson-Tavan (10)	M. Di Cosmo (20)
C	E. Hosking (3)	T. Ortlepp (2)	B. Vickers (36)
HF	R. Watts (35)	A. Klingbeil (1)	A. Thorneycroft (27)
F	M. Cowan (26)	C. Bain (4)
R	E. Hurley (18)	C. Bernardi (40)	B. Gurr (9)
INT	O. Di Donato (31)	E. Wood (10)	G. Tait (29)
	L. Robertson (16)	I. Khoury (5)
EMG	T. Nicolaou (22)	K. Day (17)
V. Murphy (21)	J. Dunne (39)
INS	E. Wood	L. Robertson	R. Watts
T. Ortlepp
OUTS	K. Day	V. Murphy	E. Honybun (Inj)
M. Runting (Inj)

 

[Lore]

AFLW ins

 

[RedmanWasHere]

S. Molan (73)

Interesting seeing this.

If she plays well enough for the club to notice, she might get another opportunity.

 

[CrowdedHouse]

Interesting seeing this.

If she plays well enough for the club to notice, she might get another opportunity.

Good experience added to our team.

Although Sophie is just 22, she made the All-Aus U18 team in 2019, played with the GWV Rebels and then later that year with the Bulldogs in the VFLW (including the Grand Final).

Add to that her 4 seasons at the wrong coloured sash, a very handy pick up for us.

 

[ant555]

Will be going to have a look today. Hope the rain holds off

 

[84859300]

Marianna Anthony just got drafted to Carlton after five minutes on North's VFLW list. Good for her, I guess!

Feedback from my Nth contact was that she'd missed multiple opportunites to get into AFLW due to her kicking and they spent off-season improving this area alone. Then she gets picked.

Good luck to her.

 

[RedmanWasHere]

Good experience added to our team.

Although Sophie is just 22, she made the All-Aus U18 team in 2019, played with the GWV Rebels and then later that year with the Bulldogs in the VFLW (including the Grand Final).

Add to that her 4 seasons at the wrong coloured sash, a very handy pick up for us.

Hopefully she puts in a good word to Charlie and have him returning from Sturt.

 

[CrowdedHouse]

Clarke a late out, replaced by Spargo.

 

[ant555]

Blues kicking with a very strong breeze first 1/4